We all have invisible wounds as a byproduct of being human. The depth of our pain often comes as a result of the things we do to turn away from our pain. When we turn toward ourselves with kindness and care, we not only nurture the possibility for healing our invisible wounds, we also open to the possibility of learning the value of skilled self-care that includes deep listening.
Try to practice meeting your pain with kindness and compassion.
When we become still and quiet enough to listen to the wisdom of the body and the whispers of our inner voice, we connect with an infinite source of energy and grace. When we settle the chaos and busyness of our lives, quiet our minds with meditation, and make time and space to listen—a deep spiritual listening—we come to understand what our soul needs in order to heal. And we pave the way for setting clear intentions for our lives and creating a life based on what matters most. Then we have the freedom in so many regards to choose how our life unfolds.
The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind. –Carolyn Myss
A Heartfelt Personal Message from Jen: Thanks for your patience as I took some much needed time away from writing these weekly Mindful Moments postcards that go out to my email list. I started sending out these weekly postcards in 2011. At the time I was terrified to send them out, and I seriously doubted my ability to commit to writing them every week. Committing to write weekly Mindful Moments for my email list and social media communities has been an important aspect of my mindfulness and creativity practices. Writing them for the past 5 years has provided an opportunity to practice keeping a commitment even during the weeks when my mind believed that I had nothing else to write about.
After 5 years of commitment to this weekly offering (I believe I may have skipped 5 or so weeks during that 5 years), I officially took some time off from writing it in order to reassess. My heart and soul were longing for a deeper and more personal expression of my most authentic self. I appreciate the emails and calls from those of you who have written me during the past 5 years to let me know how much this offering means to you. I plan to continue it but on a less frequent basis.
I’ve also started blogging again in a more traditional blog style, offering a more personal voice regarding things that matter most to me in this world. For those of you who used to read my Meditate Create blog on blogspot, this blog will be similar to that and will offer a more personal exploration of the intersection of spirituality, creativity and healing. Writing in this way allows me to have a more full creative expression of what feeds my heart and soul. You won’t get those posts in an email, because, after all, you didn’t sign up for that.
You can visit the blog whenever you like at jenjohnson.com/blog or you can create a free account on Feedly or Bloglovin and follow my posts there. I’ve got follow buttons for each of those services in the sidebar on the blog now to make it easier for you. I’ll also be posting these blogs on my social media sites, so please connect with me there if you haven’t already (see social media buttons in the right sidebar of this postcard).
For those of you who have asked what I’m working on these days, I’m creating a photographic body of work on the bald cypress trees of the Cape Fear River.
I’ve also been awarded another grant for 2017 from the North Carolina Humanities Council to offer writing and photography workshops for veterans for my Invisible Wounds of War project. The Arts Council of Wilmington & New Hanover County will play a more prominent role in the 2017 programming and will host the exhibit of the writing and photographs in their ACES gallery in October and November 2017.
I’m opening up 5 spots for new meditation students and coaching clients outside of Wilmington who want to work with me by phone or Skype. Mindfulness coaching is a great way to reduce stress and to live more intentionally, commit to your self care, and finally commit to the goals pertaining to your wellbeing that you’ve been thinking about getting around to. Drop me an email if you want to chat about working with me.
I hope you’re enjoying autumn as much as I am.
Warmly,
Jen